Exit Wounds

Steven Seagal is unconventionally cast as a maverick cop consigned to a unruly precinct after one act of insubordination too far.

The opening 10 minutes document Whispering Steve’s fall from grace. After a public speaking engagement the US Vice President’s convoy is attacked. The Secret Service response is ineffectual so Seagal steps in to save the Veep.

A typically alloy crunching car chase and shoot ‘em up follows. Alongside a pair of gun wielding motorcyclists the villains also have use of a helicopter complete with machine gunner. Intriguingly the helicopter has an acid house smiley painted on the side.

Being a respected blues artist Seagal takes great displeasure at this visible reminder of how glo-stick wielding, E’d up dance music fans killed blues-based guitar music.

Wrestling a machine gun from one of the assailants, Seagal takes careful aim at the helicopter and deploys some precision firing to take out the chopper fuel tank. The door of the helicopter blows off before a secondary explosion rips through the fuselage and the chopper fully combusts.

Verdict

A rather uninspiring helicopter explosion. Aside from Steven Seagal's one man war on acid house and precision shooting little imagination been brought to the scene.

Relevance to plot

Any group capable of organising a high level plot to assassinate the US Vice President would easily have the resources to muster a helicopter as part of the plot. However, the rave culture livery seems a rather odd choice for a red neck militia.

Artistic merit

Perfunctory is the highest praise I can summon. Disappointingly so given the production involvement of action movie specialist Joel Silver.

Exploding helicopter innovation

First known destruction of an acid house style helicopter. OK, I'm really struggling here. Pretty much none.

Positives

For a man with a 20+ year action career Steven Seagal rarely ever blows up helicopters.

Negatives

Rather than take out the chopper with a gun, the scene could have entered cinematic folklore if Old Totem Face had taken out the helicopter with well-timed roundhouse kick or some of Steven Seagal's patented fast hand movements.

Review by: Jafo